Paula Beasley’s Answers

I am the owner/landlord of duplex. Several times the rent has been late, the tenants are not living up to agreements of lease.

The garage is stacked with bags of trash, the inside carpet is extremely nasty and dirty. The tenant will not answer my calls - just ignors them. The yard is neglected and trash is hardly ever picked up. Many times they never put garbage can ou...

Paula’s Answer

December 5, 2012 8:02pm

You can give the tenant a notice to vacate based upon breach of the lease contract. Include all reasons that are defaults under the written lease agreement in the notice. There are specific statutory requirements in Section 24.006 of the Texas Property Code that must be complied with in the notice. After the notice period has run, you can file an eviction lawsuit in the Justice Court where the property is located. Some JP court judges are hesitant to grant evictions during the holidays, however, so you may want to send a list of lease violations to the tenant now and then pursue the eviction after the first of the year if you think you can wait.